# Flora Merrifield

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**Flora (de Gaudrion) Merrifield** (1859–1943, Brighton) was a leading British [suffragist](/source/Suffragist) in [Brighton](/source/Brighton) who campaigned for the [women's right to vote](/source/Women's_suffrage).

## Family

Flora was born in 1859 in Brighton.[1] She was the granddaughter of artist and author [Mary Philadelphia Merrifield](/source/Mary_Philadelphia_Merrifield) and the daughter of barrister [Frederick Merrifield](/source/Frederick_Merrifield) and his wife Maria Merrifield (née de Gaudrion). As child, Flora lived with her parents and elder sister at 48 Park Crescent in Brighton. Flora's sister later became a classical scholar [Margaret de Gaudrion Verrall](/source/Margaret_Verrall) (née Merrifield), while her uncle was the mathematician, [Charles Watkins Merrifield](/source/Charles_Watkins_Merrifield). As a young woman, Flora was present at the opening of the [Brighton School of Art](/source/Brighton_School_of_Art), of which her father was Chair, and presented [Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll](/source/Princess_Louise,_Duchess_of_Argyll) with a programme drawn up by the students.[2]

## Suffrage campaigning

Flora's parents were active members of the Brighton committee of the [National Society for Women's Suffrage](/source/National_Society_for_Women's_Suffrage), along with [Henry Fawcett](/source/Henry_Fawcett) and [Millicent Fawcett](/source/Millicent_Fawcett).[3] In 1906, the Brighton and Hove Women's Franchise Society was re-founded as a local committee of the London Society, with Flora as secretary and her sister-in-law Marian Verrall as treasurer.[3][1]

A committee was formed in February 1908 from the remaining members of the committee started two years previously by Miss Watson, an organiser from London.[4] Marian Verrall of West Hoathly would later become the President of the Cuckfield and Central Sussex Women's Suffrage Society and was the sister of Flora's brother-in-law, the classics scholar [Arthur Woollgar Verrall](/source/Arthur_Woollgar_Verrall). The Brighton society grew rapidly and had five hundred members by 1910.[3]

Flora campaigned to establish a similar society in neighbouring [Lewes](/source/Lewes), visiting the town several times from 1908 onwards, and chairing the meeting that led to the creation of the Lewes Women's Suffrage Society in 1910.[5] She also led suffrage campaigners on the [Great Pilgrimage](/source/Great_Pilgrimage) as they walked through Sussex to London in July 1913. Flora was secretary for the Brighton branch of the [League of Nations](/source/League_of_Nations) and, after her mother's death, lived with her elderly father at 14 Clifton Terrace, Brighton.[6] She died in 1943.[1]

## References

1. ["The Development of the Suffrage Movement in Brighton and Hove: New Research"](https://brightonwomenshistory.org.uk/the-development-of-the-suffrage-movement-in-brighton-and-hove-new-research/). *Brighton & Hove Women's History Group*. Retrieved 2026-03-06.

1. "The Royal Visit to Brighton". *Sussex Agricultural Express*. 6 Feb 1877. – via [British Newspaper Archive](/source/British_Newspaper_Archive)

1. [Crawford, Elizabeth](/source/Elizabeth_Crawford_(historian)). *The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain & Ireland: A Regional Survey*, (Oxford & New York: Routledge, 2006), pp. 205-206. ISBN 978-0415477390.

1. The 1908 report of the Brighton and Hove Women’s Franchise Society in the East Sussex Record Office.

1. Stenlake, Frances (2014), ["'The Lady Fired Splendidly': Lewes and the Women's Suffrage Campaign"](https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/arch-285-1/dissemination/pdf/vol_152/08Stenlake.pdf), *Sussex Archaeological Collections*. **152**: 139–52, [doi:10.5284/1086311](https://doi.org/10.5284/1086311)

1. McCarthy, Helen (2012-02-15). [*The British People and the League of Nations: Democracy, Citizenship and Internationalism, c.1918-45*](https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/EGufAQAACAAJ?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwilkYes1IuTAxXffKQEHUOBFdsQre8FegQIFRAI). Manchester University Press. p. 163. ISBN 978-0-7190-8616-8.

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